A police officer controls an access to a branch of Silicon Valley Bank in Wellesley, Mass., on March 13.BRIAN SNYDER/Reuters
Canada’s banking regulator is winding up Silicon Valley Bank’s Canadian arm and shifting its assets to a new company overseen by the U.S. regulator as one of the largest global tech financers struggles to find a buyer after its failure roiled markets.
A court order that forces an insolvent company into liquidation was issued on Wednesday morning, launching the process of restructuring the SVB’s Canadian unit as part of the U.S. bank controlled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), according to court documents. U.S. regulators shut down the lender on Friday after depositors fled, but the California-based bank has so far failed to attract a serious buyer.
On Monday, the FDIC transferred all deposits of the failed SVB to a newly created bridge bank named Silicon Valley Bank N.A. The Canadian restructuring allows a potential acquirer to scoop up SVB’s U.S. and Canadian assets together.
SVB’s Canadian arm is unusual in that it has a licence to lend, but it cannot take deposits. While some Canadian companies had deposits with the bank’s U.S. arm, the Canadian operation did not hold any client money. The tech financer is a small lender in Canada, with $864.1-million in assets and $435.1-million in outstanding loans here as of December, according to court documents.
It also operated at a loss in Canada until 2022. For the first nine months of last year, SVB reported a net income here of $4.3-million – its first year of profitability since it opened its doors four years ago, according to the documents.
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) said the wind-up process is being conducted in a “way that best serves the interests of its creditors and will allow operations of the Silicon Valley Bank to continue in Canada.”
“The process is intended to facilitate an orderly transition of the Canadian branch of Silicon Valley Bank to the FDIC Bridge Bank,” according to a statement from OSFI.
The regulator took temporary control of SVB Canada on Sunday and said that it planned to apply for a court order to wind up SVB’s Canadian operations. On Wednesday, PwC was appointed as the liquidator to oversee the future of the tech bank’s Canadian assets and OSFI no longer has an active role, the regulator said.
“I took this action to affect an orderly transition of the Canadian branch of Silicon Valley Bank to the FDIC bridge bank,” OSFI superintendent Peter Routledge said in a statement Wednesday. “I am satisfied that this approach, developed with officials in the United States, is in the best interest of the branch’s creditors.”
The California-based tech financer has so far failed to attract a serious buyer. The Globe and Mail previously reported that Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada was one of several banks that looked at buying all of SVB last weekend, according to a source with knowledge of RBC’s interests. Ultimately, RBC could not see a way to make the deal work and did not proceed with further discussions.
In Britain, London-based HSBC Holdings PLC finalized its deal to buy SVB’s subsidiary there for £1 ($1.66) on Monday, three days after regulators took control of the assets.
Canadian financial institutions may turn down the chance to buy the tech bank’s domestic loan book, instead opting to scoop up individual startup clients searching for a new lender. The Globe reported Tuesday that some of the country’s largest banks are picking up SVB clients amid a standstill in the sale process.
RBC, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of Montreal, which have sizeable tech banking units, have subtly let clients know that the lenders are available to assist companies looking for alternatives.
If the best clients and loans shift over to larger lenders before a deal for SVB is completed, the opportunity to buy its loan portfolio could be less attractive.